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Episode 1281: The Scary Sac Fly
Date October 10, 2018 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about an engaging Game 4 of the ALDS and sum up the Red Sox-Yankees series, the end of Astros-Indians, and the ALDS as a whole. Then they answer listener emails about working the count and avoiding the bullpen, why broadcasts don’t give screen time to streakers, and the best type of playoff rent-a-player, plus a Stat Blast about shifts and line drives. Topics * Keeping the starter in * Keeping the camera on people on the field * Taking a player for the playoff run Intro * The Avett Brothers, "All My Mistakes" Outro * Tame Impala, "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" Banter * Yankees Red Sox series * Aaron Boone pitcher usage * Cleveland Astros series * Advanced preparation of Cleveland Email Questions * Micah: I’ve noticed a subtle change in how I watch my Red Sox face opposing starting pitchers. I used to root for long at-bats that would "work the count” and get the starter out of the game earlier, but against the Yankees I find myself rooting for the Red Sox to somehow score without encouraging Aaron Boone to take out the starter, so that the Sox can avoid the Yankees bullpen for as long as possible. My question is: if a team wanted to “keep” the opposing starting pitcher in the game for as long as possible to avoid the other team’s bullpen, what would be the best strategy to do so? They would have to try and swing early in at-bats to keep the pitch count low, and would have to score enough runs to feel comfortable winning without scoring so many that the opposing manager feels it’s time to dip into the bullpen. Should they swing at the first pitch of every at-bat and hope they hit 3 or 4 home runs? Try and pull Ellsbury’s and get a bunch of catcher’s interferences? * Ryan (Patreon): Growing up, I was told that broadcasts don't air footage of fans who run on the field because "they don't want to encourage the behavior." With adult eyes, this makes sense from everyone's perspective except the network. MLB wants to keep the games moving and ensure players aren't harassed, stadiums especially want to avoid liability, but why wouldn't networks want to encourage fans on the field? '''Wouldn't fans being chased and tackled by security guards provide good content, both for broadcast discussion and for the Internet Baseball Media Apparatus? Is there a contractual obligation for broadcasts to omit this content, or am I overlooking something that would entice them to do so? * Brian: Playoff hypothetical. '''Say each playoff team could buy the services of 1 player from a non playoff team for the October run. Is the best play to go straight for Trout? Top line starter (DeGrom)? Top reliever? How much would you pay? * Matt R: With shifts happening, are there more line drive double plays? In the Dodgers-Giants game on the 28th, Yasmani Grandal was caught off the bag on a Max Muncy line drive that was caught by a fielder playing further up the middle than normal. The announcer (Orel Hershiser) said Grandal didn't have a chance because of how it was hit. But in the past, would it have been a single and Grandal scoring instead of a double play if the Giants defense was set up "normally"? StatBlast * Ben wanted to play the StatBlast song, so he converted Matt's question to a StatBlast. * This year there has been 2.4% of line drives that ended up in double plays, down from 2.8% in 2008. Notes * The Astros Cleveland series had the 3rd highest run differential of all time. * This years division series is tied for the second least amount of total games played. * Jeff agrees that swinging at the first pitch would help keep the starter's pitch count low. You also need to get you runs in just two trips through the batting order. But given the new reality of strong bullpens, "I don't know if there's anything to exploit." Ben wrote a piece about how bullpenning breaks one of the classic narratives of the game: Starting pitcher as protagonist. * Ben forwarded the question about fans on the field to Jason Benetti who in turn asked a TV executive who explained, (1) they doesn't want to encourage the behavior, (2) there's a risk that the person on the field has a weapon, or some tragedy occurs, exposing the broadcaster to legal liability. * Pitchers gain value in the postseason because they can be used more aggressively, but Mike Trout is so good that even DeGrom doesn't benefit enough to beat him out. * A similar question about drafting players from non-playoff teams appeared in Episode 1317. Links * Episode 1281: The Scary Sac Fly * Link to Sanchez sac fly * Link to the Jon Bois “Field Stormers” series * Link to Jeff’s post about Cleveland vs. Houston * Link to Ben’s Yanks-Sox story * Link to Ben’s bullpenning opinion piece Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes